A brief interlude from knitting:

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the Kitchener Bitch’s Margarita Cupcakes

These are the decidedly non-vegan bastard stepchild of this admittedly already delicious-sounding recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and the White Velvet Butter Cake recipe from my favorite baking book, The Cake Bible … with a few added tricks of my own. I’ve been reading blogs about baking and specifically about cupcakes lately, and I fear I will gain 756 lbs just by thinking so much of exotic sweets. But I had to make first chocolate cupcakes, and then these. The coconut is an optional touch, or you can use colored sugar or jimmies as your sweet tooth dictates.

Velvet Lime Cake

Have at room temperature:

4 1/2 egg whites (about 4 full liquid ounces/135g)

1 liquid cup milk minus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces/+/-242 g)
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (18g)
1 teaspoon lime extract (4 g)
1/2 teaspoon orange extract (2 g)
1 teaspoon vanilla (4 g)
1 tablespoon grated lime zest
3 cups cake flour (10.5 ounces/300g)
1 1/2 cups sugar (10.5 ounces/300g)
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder (19.5 g)
3/4 teaspoon salt (5 grams)
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (6 ounces/170g)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tins with twenty-four paper liners. In a medium bowl, lightly combine the egg whites, 1/4 cup of the milk, and the vanilla. Set aside. Mix the remaining milk with the lime juice and the lime and orange extracts. (The milk will thicken and curdle a little; don’t freak out, this is okay.) In a large mixing bowl, combine the zest and the dry ingredients and whisk together to combine. Add the milk-lime mixture and the butter. Mix on low speed until combined, then on high speed for 1 1/2 minutes to build structure and aerate the cake. Scrape down the sides. Add the egg mixture in 3 batches, scraping the sides of the bowl down and mixing for 20-30 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the sides. Fill paper liners two-thirds full. Bake 12-14 minutes or until tester inserted near the center comes out clean and cake springs back when pressed lightly in the center. The cakes should start to shrink away from the pan edges only after removal from the oven. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes, then transfer to a rack. Frost with Margarita Frosting.

Margarita Frosting

1/2 oz. tequila

1/2 oz. Triple Sec or Grand Marnier

1 oz. lime juice

1/2 teaspoon lime extract

1 tablespoon lime zest, grated

1 oz. milk

8 oz. butter, softened

Confectioner’s sugar

Cream the butter using a hand mixer. Add the milk, liquors, lime juice, zest, and lime extract and blend. Start adding in confectioner’s sugar until the frosting reaches a spreadable consistency. After the cupcakes have cooled completely, spread this frosting thickly over the tops. If desired, roll edges in colored sugar, coconut, or jimmies.